Just got a a MEI Executive Overnighter
After much deliberation and review of the Flyertalk Forums, I pulled the trigger and ordered a MEI Executive Overnighter. It came this week and I already used it on my first overnight trip. I will post a longer review once I can get my photos uploaded, but I wanted to pass along the following impressions since I know this bag has very little recent info online.
1. Ordering - I emailed to get more info then talked to Salim and ordered over the phone. Salim was very polite. He asked me when I needed the bag and it actually arrived UPS ground one day before promised.
2. Construction - Very sturdy. I have a Tumi briefcase and a Briggs and Riley backpack and it also featured nice cordura and beefy zippers. The older reviews I saw did not mention that there is closed cell foam on the inside/back panel and them between the middle front panel to give the bag contents in the two largest pockets more protection. The foam is not on the smaller walls of those panels.
3. Features - nice compressions straps in all three of the clothing compartments plus external compression straps. Outside full width panel has organizer slots almost like a briefcase.
4. Carrying - the rubber handle on the top both looks better than in person and was comfortable in the hand. Shoulder strap is nicely padded (but not to the level of the absolute strap I have). I'm a little nervous that the weak point in the bag is the shoulder harness d clip closure which is a pretty small gauge piece of metal. It reminded me of a briefcase strap clip I had before the Tumi that failed on me. It also had backpack straps that show MEI's practice building camping bags - so beefy padding on those that when stored they actually make the bag thicker.
My first trip was just a suit and an extra set of casual clothes so it wasn't much of a weight test. The exterior compression straps let me shrink the bag to fit no problem in an ER-170 and Q-400 overhead bin on completely full flights where conventional carryons we're being gate checked left and right because of inadequate storage.
Overall I'm happy with it, but I haven't torture tested it with a whole week's worth of stuff yet to see how it works when stuffed to the gills.